Fiji, with its many islands and mountainous terrain, has only about 11% of its total land area (2000 km2) suitable for cultivation. Therefore, it aims to meet both energy and food production simultaneously through agricultural photovoltaic (APV) systems. This study proposed an optimal agricultural management of APV system to increase farm income and solve the problem of low vegetable production. The practice is planned based on the data from farmer surveys, field study, simulation analysis, and agricultural market analysis. Firstly, a farmer survey was conducted to gather data on the agricultural activities and income of local farmers. Based on the survey results, field studies with various vegetables were conducted in an APV system. In simulation, yields of lettuce, taro, long bean, and cucumber were estimated in the APV system with different cropping management techniques (planting schedule and plant density). With the average yields of lettuce, taro, long bean, and cucumber at highest plant densities being (72.4, 71.1, 3.9, and 10.8) Mg/ha, respectively, according to economic analysis, the highest gross margin was achieved in taro in the APV system. This study shows that the APV system can increase farmers’ annual household income by 1.19 to 1.38%, which represents a meaningful absolute gain given the low average income levels identified in the farm survey.
Kim et al. (Sat,) studied this question.